geoged article: teaching the holocaust in geography · holocaust education through its contribution...

GeogEd Volume 3, Issue 2Article 1

Teaching the Holocaust in Geography

Debbie Moss

“...human geography (the study of people and places) has the power to contribute

to ways of understanding how one of the most shocking human tragedies

happened. It can help account for part of the human condition and what it means to

be European.”

(Machon and Lambert, 2005, p. 129)

In this essay I hope to convince the reader of the potential for Geography to enhance pupils’ knowledge

and understanding of contemporary Holocaust education. Geography is a subject which has until relatively

recently been underrepresented in the area of Holocaust education. I hope to contribute to the discourse

from academic geographers, who would advocate placing Citizenship, an important dimension in

geographical education, at the centre of their work. Lambert and Machon make explicit the importance of

this aspect of geographical education:

“We focus on the Holocaust for among its powerful political elements is a

fundamental concern about rights to, and exclusion from citizenship”

(Lambert and Machon, 2001, p. 122)

I will make clear to the reader how developments in the pedagogical framework of geographical education

should be used to ensure that Holocaust education relates to pupils experiencing education in the 21st

century and which relates to the future needs of these pupils and society. I will be using evidence from my

own practice in teaching in schools, teacher education and work produced as part of my project for the

Fellowship in Holocaust Education from the Imperial War Museum and Institute of Education.

The hegemony of subjects

What is certain in contemporary political debates on the education for pupils in schools in the 21st century

is illustrated clearly in recent revisions to the curriculum at both the primary and secondary level.

Curriculum developments in both stages of education support movement away from subject hegemony.

One of the main benefits of the new Programmes of Study (PoS) for all subjects at secondary level is that

the PoS capture the conceptual significance of the subject, whilst encouraging cross-curriculum, creative,

collaborative curriculum making. Concepts such as cultural understanding are identified in several subjects

across the national curriculum. Effective collaboration should enable subjects to enhance conceptual

understanding within subjects as well as contributing to broader educational aims. (please see Appendix 2).

www.geography.org.uk/geoged


The power of hegemony of subjects and topics is identified by Lambert and Machon (2005) when reading a

review of their edited book on citizenship through geography, having agreed to co-write a chapter on the

denial of citizenship using the Holocaust as a case in point. Both writers were amused to read that they had

failed to convince that the Holocaust did still not belong to history (Lambert and Machon, 2005). It was not

the intent of these writers to ‘steal this topic’ but to present the challenge to Geography educators to

consider ways in which their own subject had the potential to make a significant contribution the area of

Holocaust education through its contribution to Citizenship and pupils’ education as a whole.

The above response is not surprising given the limited exploration of Holocaust education and research in

subjects outside of history. Short states ‘Studies of Holocaust education in secondary schools have tended

to focus on how the subject is taught as part of the history curriculum. Comparatively little work of either

theoretical or an empirical nature has looked at how the subject is handled in other curricular areas (Short,

2001). I would go further and state that neither has the potential of many other subject areas been

researched as to how they might potentially move Holocaust forward to meet contemporary educational

needs of pupils.

A key development to address this challenge has been current research carried out by the Institute of

Education (Foster et al, 2009). This research has the capacity to be one of the most significant pieces of

research ever carried out in England which will enable the researchers to analyse the state of Holocaust

education in a variety of schools across the country and see what patterns emerge with regard to what, why,

how and who is teaching about the Holocaust in schools. However my concern is that this research is

already limited by the fact that the questions asked will have encouraged responses from departments

already involved in Holocaust education as it exists at the present time. My concern is what is the potential of

each subject in school to contribute to the Holocaust? This question is not asked and yet in my opinion is

crucial to the debate. Neither is a sense of place or identity specified under aims for teaching about

Holocaust, yet is critical to understanding notions of citizenship. Who owns the Holocaust and who owns

investigating the future potential of Holocaust education? Historians, RE specialists, Citizenship teachers or

has the time come to dispense with this pre-occupation with subjects traditionally associated with enabling

pupils to learn from the Holocaust. Why? Because why, what and how pupils’ learn about the Holocaust may

benefit from different insights in the 21st century, insights which can be enhanced through subjects across

the curriculum, not just ‘crusty favourites’1 associated with Holocaust education.

Education for historical understanding- some important gaps

The Holocaust as a subject clearly has the potential, when taught well to address the claims made the

importance of history statements as stated in the in the History National Curriculum (2008, please see

Appendix 3) and the subject is a statutory requirement at Key stage 3. The question which needs to be

1 I have used Lambert’s reference here as he applied it to Geography’s need to reinvigorate or get rid of traditional geographical areas of study in school in manifesto for Geography, ‘a different view’ published by Geographical Association, 2009.




asked is can history alone, or even supported by collaboration with effective teaching in RE and Citizenship

education, address effectively all the claims made in the History National Curriculum statement of aims.

As Margot and Davies, stress in their abstract to ‘The Holocaust and education for Citizenship: the teaching

of history, religion and human rights in England, (1998), there may be too little time devoted to teaching

about the Holocaust, the events of the Holocaust may sometimes be used as a mere context for

understanding World War Two. Also teachers may not perceive the Holocaust as being significantly unique

and there may through, lack of collaboration, be a lack of clarity about the nature of the affective and

cognitive aims of such work.

Why teach the Holocaust at all?

All education is socially constructed and the content which makes up the curriculum in schools has and will

continue to be affected by a range of social, economic, political, cultural and environmental factors. I feel

strongly therefore for the need to contextualise the importance of Holocaust Education within the present

social, economic and political climate in state schools, and how this particular content area of the

curriculum meets principal educational aims.

The importance of teaching the Holocaust is made clear in first line of the Imperial War Museum’s

introduction to a whole-school approach to teaching the Holocaust

“The story of the Holocaust touches upon so many aspects of human behaviour

and experience that is profoundly relevant to teachers across a range of

disciplines.” (Salmons, 2004, p.8)

Although Salmons goes on to acknowledge the work done by different specialisms already covering the

Holocaust, and the need for co-ordination of this work between departments, he fails to recognise the

potential of geography. There is probably an assumption in Salmon’s statement that Geography’s

contribution would be through Citizenship education, and writers such as Machon and Lambert (2005)

would certainly support Geography’s potential in this field but I would argue, as would these writers, that

Geography as a subject has much to contribute as a subject through its own distinctive conceptual

approaches to understanding places and through contributing to collaborative work across the curriculum.

The need for a collaborative approach to Holocaust education is identified by many writers with an interest

in educational approaches to the teaching of the Holocaust, most notably by Brown and Davies (1998).

From small scale research using data from teachers’ perceptions they identify the problematic nature of

subject boundaries which ‘may serve to act only as obstacles to better practice’ (Brown and Davies, 1998,

p 80). In their work, the authors were mainly concerned with the dialogue which took place between

teaches of history, religion and human rights.



My own personal philosophy with regard to learning and education and reasons for teaching the Holocaust

is best supported by the work of Abbs who refers to the need of the teacher to take the pupil “into the living

field of your discipline and in some way to change him by so doing. No transformation, no education!”

(Abbs, 2003). I would like think that we are educating teachers who will enable pupils to go through ‘a

series of transformative experiences, to enter a cultural democracy as reflective citizens and radical

contributors to the workplace’ (Abbs, 2003). If teachers are to rethink the needs of schools and schooling

for the 21st century they need to feel confident, competent and energized and aspirational about the

possibilities of education to bring about such transformation.

To what extent any subject is capable of ‘transforming’ pupils could itself be an important area for debate

(Freire, 1970, Boyd and Myers, 1988, Mezirow, 1996). Although writers in the field of Transformative

Learning Theory area might differ in their perspectives on the processes by which transformation is brought

about in learners, what is central to all their perspectives, is the learner’s sense of self and relationship to

society. I would argue that it is this positioning which central to pupils’ learning and response to events of

the Holocaust. The curriculum aims stated for all national curriculum subjects assumes that education does

have capacity to ‘transform’ pupils, especially the third of thee stated aims, that relating specifically to

education’s potential contribution to citizenship (see Appendix 2).

Geography’s contribution to Holocaust education – a problematic discipline

Geography has long suffered and will probably continue to do so as a result of its ‘fragmented and

contested nature as an academic discipline’ (Lambert and Morgan, 2005). However I agree with Jackson

(1996) that:

“...rather than policing our own disciplinary boundaries it is human geography’s

encounter with social theory and its excursions into neighbouring social sciences

that are the most promising sources for meeting the intellectual and political

challenges of the future.” (Jackson, 1996, p.92)

I would argue that contemporary approaches to Holocaust education must address intellectual and political

challenges: How do human and processes associated with the Holocaust help us to understand human

processes associated with contemporary genocides which have taken place in their lifetimes? How does

learning about the Holocaust enable pupils to critically reflect on their own identities? How does learning

about the Holocaust in History affect pupils’ knowledge and understanding of European cultural identities

today, including their own?

Responses given by Geography PGCE students at the beginning of a session on the teaching of

Controversial/Sensitive Issues (Moss, 2009, see Appendix 5), demonstrates that future Geography



teachers were very confident in being able to identify specific ways in which their subject could contribute to

Holocaust education.

One area of the Geography curriculum which is key to how geography teachers engage pupils and

develop knowledge, skills and understanding, is in relation to the concept of place, one of the seven key

concepts identified in the new national curriculum (2008). How can students learn about places? (Please

see Appendix 6) In the past and even today, in many geography classrooms, teachers are preoccupied

with teaching about places as case studies. This can reduce places to a series of issue-based stereotypes.

An alternative approach could be applied by adopting ethnographic approaches and describing places in

detail from as many directions and points of view as possible, in order to achieve a better understanding of

their multidimensional complexities. Liz Taylor of Cambridge University presents a strong case for ‘re-

presenting’ geography and enabling pupils to look at places using ‘different spectacles’ (2004).

Geographers have a significant role to play in developing pupils’ critical thinking with regard to how are

places represented? How and where do pupils get their knowledge and understanding of places from?

What does it mean to be European? How are European countries represented in Geography Textbooks?

What image of Germany will pupils have after studying the Holocaust in history? What important role could

geography teachers play in counteracting negative stereotypes of German people and contributing to

knowledge and understanding of a ‘new Europe’? Today many pupils will develop their conceptions of

people and places from the media, especially films. Geographers need to use films, and enable pupils to

deconstruct films so that ‘the contemporary world can be navigated’ (Aitkin and Zonn, 1994).

It is possible that when studying the Holocaust through history, pupils may be left with a specific image of a

country because of the way in which it has been represented through their Holocaust studies. Pupils may

come to think of Poland as a country associated with World War 2, or Rwanda, as country devastated by

recent genocide. But what other perspectives should pupils have and how else might we as responsible,

‘morally careful’ (Lambert 2005) educators want pupils to be able to perceive these places? Lambert makes

a powerful argument for geography teachers to place citizenship at the centre of their work (2005). I would

go further and argue that the Holocaust provides rich opportunities for pupils to engage in studying and

developing their concept of place, scale, interdependence as well as human processes and cultural

diversity, as recognised by trainee teachers in their subject (Ibid, 2009, see Appendix 5). Furthermore I

would argue that if pupils are really to understand the scale of the Holocaust, key to its historical

significance, then using pupils’ local environments to contextualise the scale of the Holocaust would

enhance pupils’ historical understanding.

Contextualising the scale of the Holocaust and relating it to pupils’ own personal knowledge and

understanding of places has been an important dimension of one of my Holocaust projects for the Imperial

War museum. Different groups of ICT Trainees were working collaboratively with geography trainees to

plan a multimedia resource to use as a stimulus for an introduction to the study of the Holocaust. One

group’s presentation focused on the idea of ‘What would be the consequences, if the whole of your school



population were unable to attend school tomorrow?’ In order to confer to pupils the loss of Jewish children

during the Holocaust, one group of trainees the trainees used local Google images, first drawing on a

school population building up to zooming in on of large, urban areas close to the pupils, which would be

equivalent to the number of children who died in the Holocaust. Evaluations by fellow trainees and

curriculum tutors rated the presentation highly in the potential of the resources to enable pupils to access

and identify the scale of the loss of Jewish children. Follow up discussions would also have the potential to

reflect on how such a loss could affect the social, economic and cultural future of communities over time.

The high quality of the outcomes of this particular presentation was attributable to the combined ICT skills

of the ICT trainees and the conceptual understanding applied by geography trainees, relating to the

concept of place applied in a meaningful context to the pupils, an important input from the geography

trainees.

The Holocaust - towards a spatial understanding

In an address to the 2009 Geographical Association Geography Teachers’ Educators’ conference, I

outlined the potential of geography to contribute to Holocaust education in four specific ways:

Understanding spatial patterns established throughout the Holocaust

Understanding European countries in 21st century - addressing change as well as continuity

Impact of Holocaust on identity of countries and individuals, encouraging understanding of

multidimensional complexities of European countries and people in them today

Understanding potential of driving forces of climate change, globalisation, population increase,

competition for space, racial tensions to bring about new genocides and encourage individual,

community, national and global responsibility

Lambert and Machon provide clear evidence for how spatial understanding of processes during Holocaust

can contribute to broader understanding of Holocaust itself and help address Citizenship education-

especially issues of cultural identity which are often misconceived both in terms of understanding of Jews

and German identity during Holocaust and problematic nature of engendering cultural understanding

throughout time and space even today. Contemporary studies of the Holocaust must enable pupils to see

how communities are emerging from the Holocaust and what pupils can learn about their own communities

and address questions such as:

Who makes up their communities?

What links them with their communities?

What is the history of their communities?

What is the future of their communities?



What part could / should they play in ensuring that they can contribute to their local and wider

communities?

I am hoping that my Imperial War Museum project on project on ‘The Austerlitz Scroll’ will enable

pupils in primary/secondary classrooms to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in subjects

across the curriculum which will enable them to relate to different elements of Holocaust education,

historical and contemporary events through relating to the story of Ruth Matiovska. Ruth is living in

the Czech Republic today and survived the horrors of Terezin. Thinking spatially will be key to pupils

addressing the resources and developing an understanding of the communities presented in the

materials as well as reflecting on their own communities.

Futures Geography?

David Levene’s session to Fellows in Holocaust Education at the Imperial War Museum in July 2008, made

explicit his own concerns that that there would be more genocides in 21st century than the 20th century as

a result of interacting driving forces, physical, but especially human - mainly climate change and

globalisation. One of my concerns at the present time when pupils study the Holocaust in schools in history

is that they identify genocide with historical events – removed from their own places and times. It is

important for geographical education to ensure pupils are aware of very real dangers the planet can face

and impact on human condition if we fail to take seriously our global responsibilities. David Hicks in his

keynote address at the Geographical Association’s 2007 conference on ‘Geographical Futures’ stressed

the importance with young people’s concerns about the future. He identified a real need to enable pupils to

understand spatial and temporal interdependence in geography and the need for students to think more

critically and creatively about the future. These aims are not just the preserve of geography teachers, just

as Holocaust education should not just be the preserve of the history teachers but effective education in all

these areas is the responsibility of all of those who profess to have the future needs of our pupils at heart.

Conclusion: Holocaust – a future perspective

All educational aims will encompass aspects of preparing pupils for the future. As Toffler states ‘All

education springs from images of the future and all education creates images of the future. Thus all

education, whether so intended or not is a preparation for the future.’ (1974). What is clear to me is that the

curriculum on offer to pupils in the 21st century must include a contemporary approach to study of the

Holocaust to relate to pupils in the 21st century and that national curriculum developments in all subjects,

and I would argue significantly geography, have the potential to play an important role in shaping pupils’

learning from this critical period of our history.



References

Abbs, P. (2003) Against the Flow: Education, the Arts, and Postmodern Culture. Routledge Falmer

Aitken, S. C. and Zonn, L.E. (eds.) (1994) Place, power, situation and spectacle: a geography of film.Blackwell Publishing

Alexander, R.J. (2009) Towards a New Primary Curriculum: a report from the Cambridge Primary Review. Part 2: The Future. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Faculty of Education.

Alexander, R.J. and Flutter, J. (2009) Towards a New Primary Curriculum: a report from the Cambridge Primary Review. Part 1: Past and Present. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Faculty of Education.

Boyd, R.D., and Myers, G.J. (1980) ‘Transformative education’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 7 (4) (Oct-Dec 1988) pp. 261-284

Brown, M. And Davies, D. (1998) ‘The Holocaust and education for Citizenship: the teaching of history, religion and human rights in England’, Educational Review, Vol, 50, No.1

Dirkx, J.M. Transformative Theory in the Practice of Adult Education: An Overview accessed at http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/taylor/taylor_02.pdf on 8/8/09

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press

Foster, S.J. et al (2009) HEDP research project awaiting publication. HEDP questionnaire and website accessed at www.hedpuk.org 13/8/09

History National Curriculum accessed at http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-4/subjects/history/index.aspx on 7/8/09

Gilbert, M. (1982) (4th edn) Atlas of the Holocaust. Routledge

Jackson, P. (1996) ‘Only connect: approaches to human geography’ in E. Rawling and R. Daugherty (eds.) Geography into the Twenty-First Century. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 77-94

Lambert, D. And Machon, P (eds.) (2001) Citizenship through Secondary Geography. Routledge Falmer

Lambert, D. (2009) Geography in Education: Lost in Post? Inaugural professional lecture, Institute of Education

Levene, M. (2008) Never Again? Whatever happened to the Genocide Convention? Session delivered to Fellows at IWM on 31st July 2008

Machon, P. and Lambert, D. (2005) ‘Geography in the Holocaust: citizenship denied’, Teaching Geography, Vol 30 Number 3, pp 125-129

Mezirow, J. (1991) Transformative dimensions of adult learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Morgan, J. And Lambert, D. (2005) Teaching School Subjects 11-19: Geography. Routledge

National Curriculum accessed at http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/ on 7/8/09

Short, G. (2001) ‘Confronting the Holocaust in Religious Education’, Journals of Beliefs and Values, Vol.22, No.1

Short, G. and Reed, C. A. (2004) Issues in Holocaust Education. Ashgate

Taylor, L. (2004) Re-presenting Geography. Chris Kington Publishing

Toffler, A. (1974) Learning for tomorrow: The Role of Future in Education. Vintage Books

http://www.calpro-online.org/eric/docs/taylor/taylor_02.pdf on 8/8/09

http://www.hedpuk.org/

http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-4/subjects/history/index.aspx

http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-4/subjects/history/index.aspx

http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/aims/index.aspx



Appendix 1

Statements taken from Cambridge Primary Review, (Alexander and Flutter, 2009)

starts from a clear statement of aims grounded in analysis of children’s present

and future needs and the condition of the society in which children are growing

up

dispenses with the notion of the curriculum core as a small number of subjects

and places all eight domains within the curriculum on the principle that although

teaching time will continue to be differentially allocated, all the domains are

essential to young children’s education and all must be taught to the highest

standards

Appendix 2

National curriculum aims for all subjects, 2008

Learning and undertaking activities should contribute to achievement for all young people to

become:

Successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve

Confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives

Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society



Appendix 3

The importance of history (statements selected which author would claim are supported by geographical knowledge, understanding and skills)

History fires pupils’ curiosity and imagination, moving and inspiring them with dilemmas and

beliefs of people in the past. It helps pupils develop their own identities through an

understanding of history at personal, local, national and international levels. It helps them to

ask and answer questions of the present by engaging with the past.

Pupils find out about the history of their community, Britain, Europe and the world……They

investigate Britain’s relationships with the wider world, and relate past events to the present

day.

History prepares pupils for the future….It encourages mutual understanding of the historic

origins of our ethnic and cultural diversity, and helps pupils become confident and questioning

individuals.



Appendix 4

• Under the cover of the Second World War, for the sake of their ‘new order,’ the

Nazis sought to destroy all the Jews of Europe. For the first time in history,

industrial methods were used for the mass extermination of a whole people. Six

million were murdered, including 1,500,000 children. This event is called the

Holocaust.

• The Nazis enslaved and murdered millions of others as well. Gypsies, people

with physical and mental disabilities, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, trade

unionists, political opponents, prisoners of conscience, homosexuals, and others

were killed in vast numbers.

Imperial War Museum, London

Definition of Holocaust given in IWM



Appendix 5

Responses to Keele University PGCE Joint ICT/Historian/Geography session: Teaching Controversial/Sensitive issues in the classroom: The HolocaustQuestionnaire given out at beginning of session before any teaching had taken place, responses analysed by Moss, 2009

Number of responses

Areas identified as ways in which Geography could contribute to knowledge and understanding of Holocaust

Showing spatial patterns throughout Holocaust

7

Understanding cultural diversity 6

Understanding place and space 5

Understanding scale 4

Addressing misconceptions of places associated and involved with Holocaust

2

Use Holocaust to address recent Conflicts

2

Holocaust is a study of people and actions on their planet

2

Understanding democratic processes 2

Understanding needs more than one subject

1

Understanding concept of interdependence

1

Address cultural misconceptions 1

Mapping of memory 1

Understanding economic diversity 1

Understanding impact on human processes/movement of people today

1

Important contribution to Citizenship education

1

Understanding human processes 1



Geography PGCE Trainees’ personal reasons for teaching Holocaust

Enormous event-everyone should know about, can’t be forgotten

4

To emphasis significance and magnitude of relatively recent events in history

2

Important topic for young people 2

Understanding global issues today 2

Helps to understand human processes recent genocide

1

To enable pupils to understand horror of real events in world today

1

Addressing racism in Stoke-on-Trent 1

Having met Holocaust deniers 1

Need to understand role of own religion ‘Christianity’ in Holocaust

1

Understanding cultural diversity today 1

Wouldn’t want to teach it 1



Appendix 6

Frameworks for reflecting on geography’s contribution to Holocaust education

Encouraging questions/critical thinking - DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHICAL ENQUIRY-investigating problem solving, thinking spatially

ENJOYMENT OF GEOGRAPHY DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS

Developing sense of wonder, interest in subject, space, place, scale, interdependence,

why geog matters, establish purpose physical and human processes, sustainability ,

for studying subject cultural diversity and understanding

RANGE AND CONTENT 4 3 2 1 DEVELOPMENT OF

Use of case studies GEOGRAPHICAL SKILLS

Scale, location and relevance to pupils Graphicacy and visual literacy,

map skills, communication-

‘Atlas of Holocaust’

Making links between topics where relevant USE OF FIELDWORK AND OUT OF CLASS LEARNING

-demonstrating interconnectedness of subject local visits, national places/international - authentic,inauthentic sites

CROSS CURRICULUM CONTRIBUTION OF GEOGRAPHY

The Holocaust-Potential of Geography? Links to literacy, numeracy ICT, Citizenship, history Moss, 2008

Numbers could be used to identify significance different areas of planning

Making sense of the past / a place / an event / a multimedia resource

Secondary sources Primary sourcesinterwoven

Our reading is shaped by our ‘positionality’

Meaning is made by our encounter

Multiple narratives

Interpretations/representations

Salmons, 2008, adapted by Moss

Joint session with History, Geography and ICT students



Why and how do we teach about the past and places?

What can we learn from the past, or about this place?Transmission of values

Narrative approach

How de we know about the past/places?Acquisition of skills

Narrative approachEvidential Approach

Should we be teaching young people

What to think? or How to think? Salmons, 2008 ,adapted by Moss

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